Daily Headlines for May 19, 2011
Big-Box Stores and School Vouchers
Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2011
Think of Wal-Mart as the innovative charter school, free of union red tape, that would provide high-quality, low-cost goods and services (education) to those customers (students) who freely choose to shop (enroll) there-if only the unions and their politician protectors would allow them the option.
FROM THE STATES
COLORADO
Teachers Propose Plan For Rating Themselves
Denver Post, CO, May 18, 2011
A group of 21 teachers from 11 districts in the metro area, today released a report with their own recommendations for teacher evaluation.
GEORGIA
Fate of Charters May Rest In Hands of School Boards That Once Rejected Them
Atlanta Journal Constitution Blog, GA, May 19, 2011
Today, Cherokee Charter Academy and Ivy Preparatory Academy in Gwinnett County will seek lifelines from school boards that once rejected them.
Consider Adoption For Court Impacted Charter Schools
Macon Telegraph, GA, May 19, 2011
For years, the charter school movement was thwarted in Georgia by local school districts that turned down application after application. Many of those denials were for cause.
IDAHO
Teachers Can Be Politically Active – Just Not At School
Idaho Press Tribune, ID, May 19, 2011
It’s a safe bet that Idaho Schools Superintendent Tom Luna and Idaho Education Association President Sherri Wood won’t be inviting each other to their birthday parties this year.
ILLINOIS
Bill Could Mean More Charters in the Suburbs
WBEZ, IL, May 18, 2011
Legislation that could result in more charter schools in Chicago’s suburbs is on its way to the governor’s desk.
KANSAS
State Stuck with NCLB
Wichita Eagle, KS, May 19, 2011
It wasn’t surprising that federal officials denied a request by Kansas for a temporary waiver from the No Child Left Behind law. But it is disappointing that Kansas public schools have to keep chasing an impossible standard.
LOUISIANA
Legislators Approve Bills for Tuition Tax Breaks, Corporate Sponsors of Charter Schools
Times Picayune, LA, May 18, 2011
Lawmakers Wednesday continued their embrace of tax and education policies that either directly or indirectly steer money away from traditional public schools.
MAINE
Charter Schools Could Offer More Diverse Public Option to Maine Families
Portland Press Herald, ME, May 19, 2011
The schools will only survive if enough people choose them, so they have to offer what people want.
MASSACHUSETTS
Rules Tightened on New Schools
Boston Globe, MA, May 19, 2011
More than one in five Massachusetts public schools has a significant amount of extra space, a state report reveals, but state and local officials say communities now in the planning stages for new schools, including East Bridgewater, Marshfield, and many others, are in little danger of building too big.
The Benefits to Choice Outweigh the Negatives
Taunton Daily Gazette, MA, May 18, 2011
Evidence continues to mount of the benefits poor and minority students in particular gain from choice programs that give them access to options like charter public and Catholic schools. But Massachusetts is one of just two states with strict constitutional provisions that prevent families from taking advantage of many of these opportunities.
MINNESOTA
Minnesota Charter Schools Get Another Year To Comply
Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN, May 18, 2011
A bill signed on Wednesday extends a June 30 deadline for charter schools to find monitors, approved by the state under stricter standards, to oversee their finances.
Special Integrated Schools Struggling To Make The Grade
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, MN, May 18, 2011
But Harambee and the metro area’s other voluntary integration programs are under intensifying pressure to show more than racial harmony among their 13,000 students. At a time when student achievement is a top priority, two out of the metro area’s three integration districts have failed to make the academic progress required under federal law. Some districts have pulled out.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Pretenured Time Increased By Bill
Nashua Telegraph, NH, May 19, 2011
New public school teachers would remain at-will employees for five years under legislation that easily cleared the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
NEW JERSEY
Bringing N.J. Schools’ Racial Segregation Into Open
Star-Ledger, NJ, May 19, 2011
The attention of the state’s political class is now fixed on school finance. Within days, probably, the state Supreme Court will rule on a motion from urban school advocates seeking a restoration of $1.6 billion in state aid cut by the Christie administration and the Democratic-controlled Legislature.
NEW YORK
Debate Over Charter Schools Comes to City Hall
Buffalo News, NY, May 18, 2011
Some of Buffalo’s lowest-performing schools should be turned into charter schools, a local attorney told the Common Council’s Education Committee on Wednesday.
Teachers Union Sues to Block School Closures
Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2011
The fate of tens of thousands of students was thrown into question Wednesday after the United Federation of Teachers and the NAACP sued to block the city’s plans to shut down 22 failing schools, a move that threatened to derail a major Bloomberg education initiative for a second year in a row.
NORTH CAROLINA
N.C. Senate Leader Lays Out Schools
Plan
News & Observer, NC, May 19, 2011
Senate Republicans have new ideas for public schools in North Carolina , and their coming budget proposal aims to reshape early-grade classrooms, teacher pay models and even the school calendar.
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Effort To Overhaul Schools
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, May 19, 2011
Nearly a year into the Philadelphia School District’s ambitious effort to overhaul low-performing schools, early results are mixed, a research report to be released Thursday concludes.
Taking a Ride
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, May 19, 2011
The Philadelphia School District has proposed cutting $38.5 million from its transportation budget by slashing both the yellow buses that bring younger students to elementary schools and subsidized SEPTA TransPasses for high schoolers.
TENNESSEE
School Reform Sham Heats Up
Commercial Appeal, TN, May 19, 2011
Sen. Brian Kelsey’s proposed legislation calling for “Equal Opportunity Scholarships” purports to benefit low-income students and public schools. In reality, it is a voucher bill that takes away much-needed tax dollars from public schools and gives them to private and religiously affiliated schools and does nothing to address the needs of our students or the challenges teachers overcome every day.
VIRGINIA
Local Education Alliance Aims To Engage Parents
Richmond Times-Dispatch, VA, May 19, 2011
A grass-roots organization is hoping to empower parents to close achievement gaps in education and boost student performance.
VIRTUAL EDUCATION
Not Everyone Will Benefit From Virtual Education
Miami Herald, FL, May 18, 2011
Virtual education seems like another development of our technological society that will further minimize the importance of social interaction. Diaz de la Portilla seems to forget that there are many opinions in this matter.
District Wooing Back Cyber School Students
Intelligencer, PA, May 19, 2011
The Palisades School District is taking on an ambitious program to win back students now attending cyber charter schools.
Virtual Learning
Herald Times Reporter, WI, May 19, 2011
Claire Krieger is studying six foreign languages as part of her eighth-grade curriculum at the middle school campus of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School – even though the only language the school offers is Spanish.